Pokémon Galaxia
by The Master Of Squids
Summary: The region of Galaxia is more dangerous than any other, for more reasons than one. But Galaxia certainly has some good scattered across it. Nate and his friends will find these out as they adventure across the region. Rated T for violence.
1. Prologue

**This is a story that's been floating around in my head for a while. I've been meaning to write it down since then. So I wrote it down, but before I could upload it my fanfic profile imploded on me. Now that it's fixed, I can now publish what you see before you. ****Anyway, reviews are appreciated. Especially ones that tell me stuff I can fix.**  


_Disclaimer: I don't own pokémon. That means I don't own names of pokémon, names of pokémon regions, names of pokémon items, or names of anything else pokémon. That stuff was created by Game Freak and is owned by Nintendo._

* * *

"Mommy! Mommy! Read us a story, mommy!" two young twins, a boy and a girl, chanted as their mom was trying to put them to sleep.

"What story do you want me to read?" she asked as she sat at the side of the girl's bed.

"I don't know. You always pick the best stories, why don't you pick it?" the girl said.

"Yeah! Read us something exciting!" shouted the boy as he bounded over to his sister's bed.

"Okay, let me think…" their mom said. She thought for a while and then said quietly, "I think you two are ready for this story." She looked solemnly at her children and said, "This story is true. Unlike almost every other story you've heard, this story really happened."

Then, she began to recite from memory:

"Once there was a great empire. The empire's capital city, located in Central Mountains, controlled almost everything."

"Mom, don't we live in the Central Mountains?" asked the girl.

"Yes, but our region is the opposite side of the Central Mountains then where this region was. If you were to go halfway around the world, you would get to the empire's capital city. Now, these people wanted people and pokémon to live together peacefully."

"Like us and our herd of mareep!" exclaimed the boy.

"That's right. They were able to do this and many other things because of people who had special powers granted to them by legendary pokémon. These powers varied based on the legendary pokémon that give that person power."

"People thought this empire could not be destroyed, so powerful these people were. However, a man trusted by the people chosen by pokémon stole powers from the legendary pokémon Darkrai…"

"How?" asked the two children almost simultaneously.

Their mom shook her head. "No one knows. But when he stole powers from Darkrai, Darkrai became either his ally or his slave. We'll never know, because this man who stole powers tried to overthrow the empire. While no one suspected him, he used his powers of darkness and nightmares to generally corrupt the great pokémon Arceus."

"The person granted powers by Arceus, the leader of the empire, found out what was happening. He tried to get Arceus to repel the darkness, but it could not be done. Arceus was under the darkness' control."

"The man who controlled the darkness and the man who controlled the empire met and fought. But with Arceus under the influence of the darkness, the leader could not win. The man who controlled the darkness ordered Arceus to destroy his enemies, but the leader of the empire used the last of his power to try and stop Arceus' attack."

"The leader could not completely stop the attack. Instead, it destroyed most of the empire's governmental city, included the man who controlled the darkness. Also, pokémon became extremely aggressive all across the Central Mountains, including our region of Galaxia."

"Except for a few areas, like our village of Stratusville where most pokémon remained unaggressive, Galaxian people were almost all killed. Only some people, who were usually quite smart and strong, were able to survive. Over time, however, advancements in technology that could be used to repel or kill pokémon and the pokémon's slow descent back to somewhat peaceful helped make Galaxia safe to live in."

The children's mom looked at them. "That is the true story of Galaxia. Now we have weapons that keep us safe, so most pokémon won't attack you. But if you two ever leave here, know you most be careful. Do you understand?"

"Yes mom," the children chanted together.

"Alright then. I'm not trying to scare you, I'm just trying to warn you. Goodnight, Nate. Goodnight, Rachel."


	2. Chapter 1

Stratusville wasn't originally built on an island. It was originally built on the Peninsula of Zapdos, so called because the legendary pokémon Zapdos is believed to have lived there before moving away one day. However, during the Aggressive Pokémon Apocalypse, the release of energy that the emperor had been trying to contain somehow broke Stratusville and the surrounding area off the mainland, and the southern part of the Peninsula of Zapdos became Stratus Island.

Therefore, the northern part of the island, which faced the mainland, was incredibly rocky, unpredictable, and dangerous. However, the southern part of the island was nowhere near as dangerous. In fact, it was just a rather large beach. And today, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were out on it.

"I just don't understand why Rachel wants to leave the island! I mean, the pokémon out there might kill her, and she's my best friend…" argued the girl.

The boy nodded. "I see what you're saying, Katie, but you have to admit, it's boring on this island with nothing to do except be a farmer."

Katie tossed her short brown hair out of her face and exclaimed, "Nate, being on this island is better than being dead!" She then fell back onto the sand. "It isn't just about Rachel," she said softly. "I don't want you to leave me either."

Nate sat down next to Katie and stroked her hair. "I never said I was going to leave."

"But you're always going on about how boring Stratus Island is and how cool it would be to join the Galaxian Force and all that…"

Nate tilted Katie's head so their eyes met. Looking into her soft blue eyes, he said, "I wouldn't leave you. Unless you're going with me to the mainland, I'm not going," then kissed her softly on the forehead.

Katie sighed and stared out to the ocean. "Do you think Barry might leave? I know how close you two are."

Nate shrugged. "Barry can leave if that's what he wants to do. I wouldn't blame him, to be honest."

The couple stared out to the vast expanse of water beyond them. Everything looked as if it was in a picture painted by the finest artist: beautiful and still. Nate suddenly looked up.

"Did you here something?" he asked.

Katie listened. "I think it might be someone running."

And sure enough, down the pathway the led to Stratus Island's beach came their friend Barry.

"Guys…pokémon…aggressive…come on…we need…" he sputtered as he ran closer to the two. He stopped, took a deep breath, and gasped, "An aggressive flock of skarmory came over here. The G.F. guys are trying to round them all up, and they've told everyone to get inside and stay there! Come on!"

Nate quickly pulled up Katie, urgency in his voice. "Come on, let's hurry!"


	3. Chapter 2

The strange thing about the Aggressive Pokémon Apocalypse, often referred to as the A.P.A., is that it didn't affect the entire region of Galaxia. Certain parts of the region, such as Stratus Island, were unaffected unless an aggressive pokémon happened to come across that area of land. While this strange effect allowed people in these regions to survive easier, it also cut them off of the developing technology of Galaxia until the mainlanders were able to get across to the protected isolated areas.

Now was a time when Nate wished he had some of Galaxia's more modern weapons. Unfortunately, Stratus Island wasn't deemed unsafe enough to distribute some of the more advanced weaponry to the common people. Fortunately, Stratus Island _was_ deemed unsafe enough for the Galaxian government to distribute some less advanced weaponry.

Unfortunately, Nate's less advanced weaponry was at home.

As Nate, Katie, and Berry ran towards their homes, they passed a few groups of G.F. officals. Nate couldn't see any weapons on them, but he knew that lots of Galaxian weaponry was compact and almost undetectable.

After getting towards the center of town, a group of officials came over to the group of teens. "Where are each of your houses?" one asked urgently.

After a teen gasped out the location of his or her house, an official accompanied him or her on their way there.

Nate was assigned to a young man named Jack after gasping out his house's location. The first thing Nate noticed about him was that his blond hair jetted to the side, and then to the back of his head once it was halfway down his forehead. The next thing Nate noticed is that Jack wanted him to get the heck out of the open.

"I haven't seen a group of pokémon this aggressive. Ever," he said while walking quickly to Nate's house. He spotted the terrified look on Nate's face and comforted, "Don't worry though, we've been trained for this and all other types of stuff. In fact, I remember..."

"That's my house," interrupted Nate. "The one with the pen for our mareeps."

Jack nodded, then said, "So you guys farm mareep wool?"

"Among other things." Nate didn't really feel like explaining what those other things were, since something similar could happen to him if an aggressive skarmory found him.

Jack walked Nate towards the front door. Nate didn't see how his puny little house was going to protect him from a skarmory. It wasn't an old, run down shack or anything like that. In fact, it was pretty well built. But skarmories were made of steel! They could most likely destroy his house with one steel wing attack!

As if Jack had read his mind, he crouched down and said, "Look kid. We'll keep you safe. We'll keep all of you safe. That's what the Galaxian Force does."

Nate nodded and went inside his house. The first thing he noticed was that there seemed to be an awful lot of mareep inside.

"I needed to keep them inside," Nate's mom said. "Mareep aren't the strongest pokémon, and a skarmory might have one for a snack if it gets hungry."

"Nate? Is that you?" came a voice from upstairs. Nate heard feet running down the stairs until his twin sister, Rachel, was downstairs as well.

The first thing she said was, "Thank goodness you're alright!" The next thing she said was, "Exactly how many mareep do we have?"

"Don't worry about the mareep. Worry about yourselves," lectured their mom. "You two are…"

"…not allowed to go outside until the aggressive pokémon are gone. We know that, mom," sighed Nate.

"Yeah, don't worry mom. I mean, why would we want to go outside when pokémon that wouldn't think twice about attacking us are all over the island?" supported Rachel.

Their mom nodded. "We'll have a quick dinner, and then it's off to bed. Try to stay quiet; don't attract any of these aggressive pokémon."

Dinner that night was just a salad. Nothing with smells that could possibly attract any aggressive pokémon. Dinner was eaten in almost complete silence. Then, almost immediately after dinner, Nate and his sister headed upstairs to their bedrooms. While getting ready for bed, Nate could have sworn he heard an explosion, which Nate hoped meant one of the pokémon had been killed and not an official.

_Don't worry,_ he thought. _G.F. Officials are trained for these sort of things. They'll protect us. They'll fix it._


	4. Chapter 3

The strange thing about the Aggressive Pokémon Apocalypse, often referred to as the A.P.A., is that it didn't affect the entire region of Galaxia. Certain parts of the region, such as Stratus Island, were unaffected unless an aggressive pokémon happened to come across that area of land. While this strange effect allowed people in these regions to survive easier, it also cut them off of the developing technology of Galaxia until the mainlanders were able to get across to the protected isolated areas.

Now was a time when Nate wished he had some of Galaxia's more modern weapons. Unfortunately, Stratus Island wasn't deemed unsafe enough to distribute some of the more advanced weaponry to the common people. Fortunately, Stratus Island _was_ deemed unsafe enough for the Galaxian government to distribute some less advanced weaponry.

Unfortunately, Nate's less advanced weaponry was at home.

As Nate, Katie, and Berry ran towards their homes, they passed a few groups of G.F. officals. Nate couldn't see any weapons on them, but he knew that lots of Galaxian weaponry was compact and almost undetectable.

After getting towards the center of town, a group of officials came over to the group of teens. "Where are each of your houses?" one asked urgently.

After a teen gasped out the location of his or her house, an official accompanied him or her on their way there.

Nate was assigned to a young man named Jack after gasping out his house's location. The first thing Nate noticed about him was that his blond hair jetted to the side, and then to the back of his head once it was halfway down his forehead. The next thing Nate noticed is that Jack wanted him to get the heck out of the open.

"I haven't seen a group of pokémon this aggressive. Ever," he said while walking quickly to Nate's house. He spotted the terrified look on Nate's face and comforted, "Don't worry though, we've been trained for this and all other types of stuff. In fact, I remember..."

"That's my house," interrupted Nate. "The one with the pen for our mareeps."

Jack nodded, then said, "So you guys farm mareep wool?"

"Among other things." Nate didn't really feel like explaining what those other things were, since something similar could happen to him if an aggressive skarmory found him.

Jack walked Nate towards the front door. Nate didn't see how his puny little house was going to protect him from a skarmory. It wasn't an old, run down shack or anything like that. In fact, it was pretty well built. But skarmories were made of steel! They could most likely destroy his house with one steel wing attack!

As if Jack had read his mind, he crouched down and said, "Look kid. We'll keep you safe. We'll keep all of you safe. That's what the Galaxian Force does."

Nate nodded and went inside his house. The first thing he noticed was that there seemed to be an awful lot of mareep inside.

"I needed to keep them inside," Nate's mom said. "Mareep aren't the strongest pokémon, and a skarmory might have one for a snack if it gets hungry."

"Nate? Is that you?" came a voice from upstairs. Nate heard feet running down the stairs until his twin sister, Rachel, was downstairs as well.

The first thing she said was, "Thank goodness you're alright!" The next thing she said was, "Exactly how many mareep do we have?"

"Don't worry about the mareep. Worry about yourselves," lectured their mom. "You two are…"

"…not allowed to go outside until the aggressive pokémon are gone. We know that, mom," sighed Nate.

"Yeah, don't worry mom. I mean, why would we want to go outside when pokémon that wouldn't think twice about attacking us are all over the island?" supported Rachel.

Their mom nodded. "We'll have a quick dinner, and then it's off to bed. Try to stay quiet; don't attract any of these aggressive pokémon."

Dinner that night was just a salad. Nothing with smells that could possibly attract any aggressive pokémon. Dinner was eaten in almost complete silence. Then, almost immediately after dinner, Nate and his sister headed upstairs to their bedrooms. While getting ready for bed, Nate could have sworn he heard an explosion, which Nate hoped meant one of the pokémon had been killed and not an official.

_Don't worry,_ he thought. _G.F. Officials are trained for these sort of things. They'll protect us. They'll fix it._


	5. Chapter 4

Two young men were on the rocky shores of northern Stratus Island. One, with brown hair and brown eyes, was sitting on a rock, watching his friend throw rocks out into the sea. His friend had dirty blond hair that was very messy and never seemed to be going in one direction. His friend had also never been the same since the incident five years ago.

"I can't stay here anymore, Barry," said the blond one. "I understand if you want to stay…"

"Hey, I never said I wanted to stay here. Heck, I'll probably leave this island with you," sighed Barry. "I'm just saying you should wait the few weeks until you leave. Then, you'll be officially twenty! I know you want to leave, Nate, but you have to be patient."

Nate threw a stone, which hit the water and sank like, well, a rock. "It's not that I want to leave Stratus Island," he sighed. "I just want to get away from…"

"…the memory of that attack?" finished Barry.

Nate nodded. Ever since Katie was killed in the skarmory attack, life on Stratus Island hadn't been the same. For one thing, a bridge from the Galaxian Force Headquarters's island to Stratus Island had been built, presumably to get emergency forces into the island quicker. More powerful weapons were put in strategic island locations for emergency situations. But the most jarring effect the attack had, at least on Nate, was Katie's death.

She and Nate were immediately taken to the G.F. headquarters after the monstrous skarmory was killed to receive advanced medical treatment. Why the headquarters? Well, mainly because it was the closest place to Stratus Island with advanced medical facilities. The doctors at the G.F. eventually concluded the Nate had indeed gotten a concussion from being thrown through the door. They were exceedingly surprised when Nate told them how long he was able to stay conscience because, first of all, of how long he was able to stay conscience, and, second of all, because Nate could even remember the events following him being thrown through the door.

Katie, however, was not as lucky. The skarmony grabbing and twisting its claw caused fatal damage to her organs. She died despite the best attempts of the medical professionals. And Nate had never been the same since.

Barry knew all of these things. Five, almost six years, was enough time for him to learn as much from Nate as he was ever going to tell him. So, he said, "Nate, you can't run away from the past. It'll always be there."

Nate nodded as he threw another stone out to sea. "I don't want to forget what happened to Katie. But being here, on this island, constantly reminds me of what happened to her. It's painful."

Barry stared into the sky, watching a Galaxian airplane fly through the sky. "I know, Nate. Katie wasn't as close to me as you, but I miss her. I certainly don't blame you for wanting to leave." That airplane wasn't flying right. In fact, it seemed to be trying to fly away from something.

Nate turned and looked at Barry. "You'll come with me, right?" he asked.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" muttered Barry, distracted. That plane defiantly wasn't flying normally. But who in the world would be crazy enough to attack a plane this close to the headquarters of the Galaxian Force? The G.F._ headquarters_ was only a few miles off the northern coast of Stratus Island. "Nate, look at that airplane…"

As Nate stared into the sky, the back of the airplane suddenly started smoking. "Hey, Mr. I-know-everything-about-planes, that isn't good, is it?" he asked.

The plane turned towards Stratus Island, sinking out of the air very fast. "Yeah, that's bad. Really bad," Barry said, starting to panic. The plane flew overhead, sinking fast.

Nate looked at Barry. "We have to go to the village! Anything could have been in that plane!"

Barry nodded and felt to make sure his blue plasma sword was still attached to his belt. Like Nate, he had got into the habit of carrying the thing around with him everywhere he went. "It didn't look like it would crash into the island, but you never know." Barry sighed. "I don't know, Nate, maybe we should just go check it out ourselves. Those officials said our fighting skills are extremely proficient. And, honestly, the plane is going to crash into the ocean unless the pilot has some crazy flying skills."

Nate took a deep breath, then shook his head. "Whatever, but we better get going!"


	6. Chapter 5

Halfway to the southern side of the island, Nate and Barry ran into Rachel. "Nate, where are you two going? It's getting late!" she scorned.

"Rachel, we just saw plane get shot down or something!" exclaimed Barry. "It looked like it was going to try and land near the south side of the island!"

"We were going to go check it out!" added Nate.

"Well, then I'm going with you," she said mater-of-factly.

"Whatever," said Nate, knowing he wasn't going to get Rachel to stay home. "You have your sword, right?"

"I always have my sword," she replied, patting the red-bladed weapon attached to her belt.

"Come on, guys! We have to hurry!" urged Barry.

The trio of young adults ran to the southern beach. Once there, Rachel parted her curly hair out of her face and stared out to the water. "Out there," she said, pointing to something bulging out of the sea. "Is that the plane, or is that a rock?"

Barry squinted and looked at it. "I'm not sure, it's kinda far away."

As the two looked out to the ocean, Nate was looking around for anything that didn't belong on the beach. He looked over to his left and saw something sticking out of the sand. He walked over to the mysterious object.

"I found something!" called Nate's voice. The two teenagers looked over to where Nate had wandered off. Nate was observing something that appeared to be a briefcase of sorts, which was right side up and was a night-colored black. The Galaxian Force logo was engraved on the side, a black G with red on one side and blue on the other, which came together to from purple at the ends of the letter.

"Should we open it?" Rachel wondered aloud, walking over to Nate.

"It has to be G.F. property. I'm not sure we want to touch it," warned Barry. "There could be anything in it."

Nate picked the case up and stared at it. "I don't think there's anything bad in here. It would have a warning on it if it did." He placed the case on the ground and opened it.

Inside were what looked like pokéballs, containers for captured pokémon. However, these pokéballs, instead of having white on the bottom of the ball, had blue. They also had the G.F. logo placed on the red, marking it as the top. These special types of pokéballs were known simply as Galaxian pokéballs, and they only worked when a pokémon trusted the person throwing the pokéball enough. This helped cut down on the number of pokémon rebelling against their owners.

"There's six of them," said Barry.

"What pokémon do you think are in them?" asked Nate.

Rachel shook her head. "I don't think we need to find out. These pokémon are obviously G.F. property."

Barry nodded. "Rachel's right. As much as I'd like to have a pokémon, I don't think we should take these."

"We probably shouldn't have opened the case in the first place," agreed Nate.

Rachel stared at the case. "So, what do we think we should do with it?"

"How about you give it to me?" asked a deep voice. The trio quickly spun around.

A man was standing there. His jet black hair would have concealed his eyes had it not been jetted somewhat sideways. The man stared at them with piercing eyes. Actually, he didn't actually look that old, just weathered and tired.

"You see, that case is mine," the man started. "When my plane was shot down, I had to drop my case here. I'd be delighted if you gave it back."

"I... I'm not sure," stammered Nate, picking up the case. Something was off about this man.

"You don't work for the Galaxian Force. You're not in uniform!" accused Rachel. Galaxian Force officials were required to almost always be in uniform. This man wasn't. "Why would we give this to you?"

"Smart girl," the man said as he grinned and pulled out a weapon. "You'll give it to me because I have a gun," he said, pointing it at Nate, who had the case in his hands.


	7. Chapter 6

"You… you wouldn't shoot at us," stammered Barry. "You…"

The scarred man shrugged. "This won't kill you," he explained. "It's not meant to kill. It's meant to stun. So no guilt or thinking twice."

"So if we refuse to give this to you, you shoot us?" asked Nate, still grasping the box.

The man nodded. "It'll just stun you. Nothing to worry about long term. And you," he gestured to Rachel, who was trying to pull out her plasma sword. "Don't even think about using that thing." He started scanning the trio for other weapons. "It won't even work; gunshots are way too fast for any normal person to block them…" His voice trailed off as he saw Nate's sword. "That," he said, "is a very nice weapon. Where did you get such a thing?"

Nate stayed quiet, trying to figure out a plan. The scarred man was right, a plasma sword was no match for a gun. But maybe he could use a pokémon from out of the suitcase. How was he going to do it without the scarred man realizing what was going on? And would a pokémon be a match for a gun either?

"Kid, I asked where you got that," pressured the scarred man.

"He got it from a Galaxian Force Elitist," interjected Rachel, who winced when the thought that maybe Nate didn't want to tell the man where he got the sword from popped into her mind.

The scarred man nodded. "Well, that certainly is an expensive weapon. It looks custom built. But..." he gestured to Nate again. "...you won't have to use it if you hand that case over."

"He isn't going to hand that case over," came a voice from behind the scarred man. "At least, not to you."

The scarred man turned around very quickly and pointed the gun at the newcomer: a girl who looked very wet, with long hair that fell towards her shoulders. Her uniform was marked with the distinctive markings that determined an Elitist. She smiled. "You're looking not nearly as confident as I thought you would, Drake."

Drake recovered from the initial shock and regained his composer. Smiling back, he taunted, "You're not looking nearly as dry as I thought you would, Savannah. I was just trying to convince these people to give me your suitcase."

"Why do you even want it? There isn't anything of use to you in there," said Savannah.

"On the contrary, we could use the pokémon you have in that case."

"We? You mean that unorganized group of people you call... what? I don't even remember!"

"They're going to be at this talking contest for a while," whispered Barry, still standing in a group with Nate and Rachel. "Plus, G.F. Officials aren't supposed to actually shoot people."

"She knows what to do, she's an Elitist," whispered back Rachel. "And I'm sure she has a plan!"

"Guys," said Nate quietly, "we need to use one of these pokémon. That's what she wants us to do." Without waiting for a reply he quietly clicked open the locks on the case and lifted it ever so slightly. Nate could have sworn Savannah, the Elitist, gave him a small nod.

"Nate," said Barry sternly. "You are insane."

"Guys, you're going to have to take a pokémon," repeated Nate softly.

"How do you know this Elitist wants us to use the pokémon?" questioned Barry.

"She's giving him small signals," whispered Rachel. "I've noticed it too. What bugs me is that we're going to use pokémon to beat a gun. How? That doesn't work!"

"What else are we going to do?" argued Nate. "This Drake guy is still paying attention to the Elitist. She probably has a stronger pokémon."

Barry and Rachel sighed in agreement. "If this fails..." started Barry.

"Quiet," whispered Nate, who carefully opened the case. He sneaked out three of the pokéballs. Rachel and Barry carefully grabbed one each…

"What are you doing?" questioned Drake, who had noticed that the trio was up to something.

Without thinking, the trio threw out their pokéballs. Rachel's exploded into a cyndaquil, Barry's into a chimchar, and Nate's into a charmander.

"Attack!" the three yelled at once.

Drake blasted the chimchar with perfect accuracy. He fired at charmander, but the pokémon dodged out of the way. At least, until a second shot hit it in the stomach and sent it flying back. He then turned to shoot the nearing cyndaquil, but was distracted by something else.

A milotic, sent out by Savannah, whipped the gun away from Drake, who was focused on the three weaker pokémon, and flung it out to sea. "Give up, Drake," said Savannah, her milotic ready to strike.

Drake chuckled as group of pokémon and humans stared at him. "This is nothing," he said. "I've escaped from worse. However, this mission is over. I failed, and I realize that. Bye!" Before anyone could react. he grabbed a pokéball. He disappeared in a flash of light as Savannah yelled to not let Drake escape.

"He teleported, and he escaped," muttered Savannah in frustration. She then looked at the trio of Stratus Islanders. "So," she began, "we've got a lot to talk about."


	8. Chapter 7

"Are we in trouble?" Rachel asked. It was the big question on the three young adults' minds as they sat in the Stratusville Town Hall.

Savannah shook her head. "Not necessarily, since I told you guys to do it. There is going to be some trouble, though."

"What do you mean by trouble?" asked Nate. He could have sworn he had done the right thing by unleashing the pokémon to save Savannah and themselves, not to mention the suitcase full of pokémon. But after Drake escaped, Savannah told the group to follow her to the town hall, where she began interrogating them.

"Look, those pokémon were supposed to not be brought out of their pokéballs until they got to the HQ," Savannah said. Before the trio could ask more questions, she shook her head again. "I'd better tell you from the beginning…"

"This case is filled with pokémon from other regions," explained Savannah. "Kanto, Jhoto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, and Kalos, to be exact."

"We were conducting an experiment to see how pokémon from other regions would react when taken into the region of Galaxia. Some of these changes include very slight changes in brain activity impossible to see without _very _advanced equipment."

"But you guys kind of, well, messed it up because you released the pokémon out early."

"It wasn't our fault!" protested Barry. "You told us to do it!"

Savannah nodded in agreement. "And I'll take the blame for it. But, since you were involved in the experiment, somebody will want to talk to you."

Despite many questions being asked by the trio, Savannah couldn't give them any answers about whether they were in trouble, how bad the trouble was going to be, or who was going to talk to them. "I don't know what's going on any more than you three!" she shouted.

A few hours of interrogation later, a helicopter arrived at the somewhat newly built landing site. Another effect of the skarmory attack. Although Nate assumed it was part of Galaxian Force security, he still found it strange that the G.F. used a helicopter when they could just as easily driven over to Stratus Island. Of course, helicopters were usually more weaponized than cars, and after an event like this the G.F. wasn't taking any risks.

A man stepped out of the helicopter, also bearing the gold stripes of an Elitist on his dark green uniform. The second Nate saw him, he realized who he was.

"Jack!" shouted out Nate, relieved that some crazy Official he didn't know wasn't going to come interrogate him.

Jack, who had hardly changed at all in the years since Nate last saw him, paused for a minute before recognition came across his face. "Nate! And Rachel and Barry!" he exclaimed. "I thought maybe you guys had something to do with it. You seem to have lots of stuff happen to you: the skarmory incident, the ceremony that you organized for Stratus Island, and now this."

Nate had to think about what Jack had said about about the ceremony before he remembered the event Rachel had planned to honor the victims of the skarmory attack, including Susan. Rachel took leadership of the planning and handled it brilliantly. The event even got most of the Officials who were involved in the attack, not to mention the leaders of the G.F. themselves, to show up.

"It's not like we tried this time," muttered Rachel.

"So, we're in trouble?" interjected Barry.

"That depends," said Jack, who walked over to Savannah and started asking questions. "From what I understand, they each took only one pokéball, correct? The pokémon haven't been brought out again?"

He fired off a couple of other questions, with Savannah answering them. "Okay, which pokémon were they?"

Savannah handed Jack the briefcase. Jack opened it and brought out the three pokéballs the trio had used to drive off Drake. Jack examined them before placing them back in the case.

Jack thought for a while, and then replied, "I'm not sure Draco will approve this, but since we have three pokémon left, we may be able to run two experiments instead of one. One will be the original one with the three pokémon we have left, and the other will deal with how pokémon change when realized in non-aggressive zones of Galaxia."

Even though the trio was utterly confused by this statement, Savannah grinned. "Well, if Draco's in a normal mode, he'll yell at someone, probably me, and then approve it." Her grin faded. "But pokémon begin to bond with their trainer immediately after being let out of a pokéball for the first time. Which means…"

Jack nodded. "These three have to come with us to the mainland of Galaxia."


	9. Chapter 8

After the skarmory attack, Nate knew that he wouldn't be able to live on Stratus Island for the rest of his life. The mere memory of Katie, attacked and killed by the skarmory, was enough to send Nate plummeting into nightmares. He just never thought he would be leaving his home like this.

Technically, it wasn't a permanent departure. Jack just needed Nate, along with Rachel and Barry, to go to the Galaxian Force HQ and tell a man named Draco about what happened. After that, Nate and his friends could either leave and go home or stay and train at the G.F. Jack had said that Nate and Rachel were close enough to their birthday to go train at G.F. until they turned 20, at which time they were legally allowed to head into the Galaxian mainland.

Galaxian Force training was the option Nate knew he was going to take. He wondered what was in store for him. Training was said to take months for the inexperienced. _What counts as inexperienced? _thought Nate to himself.

"Nervous?" whispered Rachel.

"Of course I'm nervous. I'm sure Nate is too," smiled back Barry.

"What do you think is there?" asked Nate back.

"Everything," answered Savannah, startling those who sat across from her. "By the way, work on your whispering so people across from you can't here.

After a few more minutes, Nate, Barry, and Rachel stepped out of the helicopter and into the Galaxian Force HQ building's perimeter. The island that the building was built on used to be connected by a short land bridge, which was destroyed by the blast that started the Aggressive Pokémon Apocalypse. Now, a stunning bridge made of material that Nate couldn't even guess to what it was connected the island to the mainland. Unlike Stratus Island, however, this island was not spared of the effects of the A.P.A., and all human life was wiped out until the recolonization decades ago.

Savannah and Jack led the trio into the huge building. While not a skyscraper, the building was still very tall, and the complex surrounding it sprawled across most of the island, which was slightly larger than Stratus Island. As they stepped inside through the futuristic-looking automatic doors, Nate was blasted with a plethora of new sights and sounds. Before he could take almost any of them in, Jack was leading him and his friends towards a large elevator in the relative center of the room.

After riding upwards in the metallic elevator for a while, the group stepped out into a hallway lined with doors. Jack walked down and opened one. "Stay here," he requested. "I'll be back with Draco."

Jack strolled out the door, and the room was silent. Finally, Rachel turned to Nate. "What do you think is going to happen?"

"They can't do anything that bad to us, right?" asked Barry unsurely.

"I hope so; Savannah did tell us to use the pokémon," replied Nate. He didn't feel so hopeful, he just wanted this meeting with over as soon as possible.

As Barry was about to reply, Savannah, Jack, and a tall man Nate assumed was Draco walked into the room. The first impression of Nate's that Draco gave him was to not mess around near him. Or step out of line, which Nate had already done.

"They're the kids from the skarmory attack years ago," Draco stated almost immediately, observing the three. Even though Draco seemed to recognize him, Nate surely didn't. Draco stared them with a cold expression. "And now they've messed up our experiment."

"_I _messed up our experiment," corrected Savannah.

"Look, Draco," interrupted Jack before Draco could start arguing with Savannah. "We're lucky in the fact that not all six pokémon were released. We can still do the experiment, but we could also run a parallel one that…"

"I understand what you're saying," Draco interjected. "We'll see how the pokémon feel now, and then monitor them in comparison to the other pokémon we'll release with other people. That is your suggestion?"

"Basically," answered Jack.

Draco stared down the trio, who wouldn't dare to say a word. "Where are these pokémon they released?"

"I brought them." Savannah stepped forward quietly, revealing the suitcase from behind her. She opened the case and took out three of the pokéballs. Draco held his hand up before Savannah could do anything else.

"We may as well give the pokémon to the," Draco said after staring at the trio. He seemed to be trying to get a confession out of one of the suspects, or at least intimidate them. "We've analyzed all the changes we can observe at this time. Put them in training or send them back to Stratus Island or do whatever you want to do with them. Just make sure the pokémon are always being analyzed." He then turned and threw open the door. "And don't screw anything else up. I'll be monitoring your expiriment very closely," he added as an afterthought before leaving.

The room was silent for a few seconds until Jack shrugged. "That, honestly, went much better then I expected."

"Try telling it to the three speechless recruits over here," replied Savannah, gesturing at Nate and his friends. Turning to them, she explained "Draco isn't a bad person, but he is, well…"

"He's strict," finished Jack. "He also happens to not like Savannah very much, for some reason unknown to me. But that isn't our focus now. Time for you guys to get your first pokémon!"

As Nate, Barry, and Rachel went up to grab their own pokémon, Jack added knowingly, "We'll start training tomorrow."


End file.
